• Annals of Clinical Microbiology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.9-13
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• 2019

Background: The isolation of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) has become increasingly common. Continuous surveillance for these organisms is essential because their infections are closely related to outbreaks of illness and are associated with high mortality rates. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate multiplex PCR as a means of detecting several important CPE genes simultaneously. Methods: We aimed to develop a multiplex PCR that could detect seven CPE genes simultaneously. The multiplex PCR was composed of seven primer sets for the detection of KPC, IMP, VIM, NDM-1, GES, OXA-23, and OXA-48. We designed different PCR product sizes of at least 100 bp. We evaluated the performance of this new test using 69 CPE-positive clinical isolates. Also, we confirmed the specificity to rule out false-positive reactions by using 71 carbapenem-susceptible clinical strains. Results: A total of 69 CPE clinical isolates showed positive results and were correctly identified as KPC (N=14), IMP (N=13), OXA-23 (N=12), OXA-48 (N=11), VIM (N=9), GES (N=5), and NDM (N=5) by the multiplex PCR. All 71 carbapenem-susceptible clinical isolates, including Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, showed negative results. Conclusion: This multiplex PCR can detect seven CPE genes at a time and will be useful in clinical laboratories.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.115
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• pp.249-279
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• 2010

The Law of the Heart, which appears in the chapter "B. The Actualization of Rational Self-consciousness Through its own Activity" in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit represents that the self-certainty of the reason may be the another face of the Madness. The Reason's indubitable certainty is the testimony of the truth for Descartes, and it also plays a role as the moral maxim of the conscience for Kant. But this subjective certainty unavoidably leads to the Madness of self-conceit, which unifies the consciousness and the reality ignoring the difference between them. The typical attitude appearing in the reformer like Don Quixote and also romantic idealists reveals the fact that modern reason and the psychosis can be both faces of one and the same coin. The Mirror Stage, the Imaginary, and the Formula of the Desire in Lacan's Theory shows that the Image of completeness is the result of Mis-understanding. Even if the Mirror stage is necessary for the Formation of the subject, at the same time it should also lead to the next stage, i.e., the Symbolic Order. It is considered as the realm of the Otherness, which refers to the realm of language or that of law. If the Ego can't go through the symbolic castration acted on by the Name of the Father, he will be remained in the prison of the Imaginary. The Madness also shows the similar process. For Hegel the Discipline of the Labor or the Death as absolute Otherness that inevitably delays the Desire plays the same role as the name of Father. It may be the experience of Separation or that of Sublation of the individual towards the universal, which is equivalent to the experience of Symbolic castration in Lacan. Furthermore there may be the difference between Hegel and Lacan as the following; while in Hegel the experience of Separation is founded on the spontaneity of the Spirit, for Lacan it is to be compelled and structured by the absolute Other.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.50-59
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• 2023

The amount of dust generated during the dissolution of scrap in an electric arc furnace is approximately 1.5% of the scrap metal input, and it is primarily collected in a bag filter. Electric arc furnace dust primarily consists of zinc and ion. The processing of zinc starts with its conversion into pellet form by the addition of a carbon-based reducing agent(coke, anthracite) and limestone (C/S control). These pellets then undergo reduction, volatilization, and re-oxidation in rotary kiln or RHF reactor to recover crude zinc oxide (60%w/w). Next, iron is discharged from the electric arc furnace dust as a solid called Fe clinker (secondary by-product of the Fe-base). Several methods are then used to treat the Fe clinker, which vary depending on the country, including landfilling and recycling (e.g., subbase course material, aggregate for concrete, Fe-source for cement manufacturing). However, landfilling has several drawbacks, including environmental pollution due to leaching, high landfill costs, and wastage of iron resources. To improve Fe recovery in the clinker, we pulverized it into optimal -sized particles and employed specific gravity and magnetic force selection methods to isolate this metal. A carbon-based reducing agent and a binding material were added to the separated coarse powder (>10㎛) to prepare briquette clinker. A small amount (1-3%w/w) of the briquette clinker was charged with the scrap in an electric arc furnace to evaluate its feasibility as an additives (carbonaceous material, heat-generating material, and Fe source).

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.226-256
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• 2023

Gyeongju has been the capital of Silla Kingdom for about 1,000 years, and many cultural heritages of the Silla period, such as the Wolseong Palace Site, Daereungwon Ancient Tomb Complex and Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond, are located in the city. Due to these characteristics, the process of heritagization has been carried out in Gyeongju from the Japanese colonial era to after liberation. Heritagization means selecting things from the past due to the needs of the present and making them heritages. In the case of South Korea, national government-led heritagization was achieved during the Japanese colonial period, and after liberation because of the restoration of national culture and the construction of a national identity. Gyeongju is a representative example. On the other hand, Gyeongju's heritagization process was carried out with little consideration of the local community, and thus the local community and Gyeongju's heritage have been distancing. In 2002, Gyeongju's heritage sites were nominated as World Heritage Sites. With the nomination, the perception of the role of local communities in heritage has been changed, and institutional mechanisms to promote the participation of local communities have been continuously reorganized. However, Gyeongju's heritagization process, which was thoroughly conducted through the central government and expert groups, was the reason why Gyeongju residents actually thought Gyeongju's heritage and the locality of Gyeongju were formed through the central government and expert groups. This has been the result of Gyeongju residents' passive participation in heritagization or heritage management to date. This study analyzed the heritagization process of Gyeongju through literature research and conducted an interview survey of residents who have lived in Gyeongju for a long time to understand the impact of the institutional heritagization process on residents and the relationship with heritage. Based on the analysis results, it was suggested that local residents and communities could take the initiative in managing the heritage of Gyeongju.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.26-37
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• 2023

Good control of the solution pH and temperature is required to recover vanadium from the water leaching solution of vanadium ore after sodium roasting. However, such adjustments could lead to aluminum-vanadium and sodium-vanadium co-precipitation, which greatly affects the efficiency of vanadium recovery. In this study, a process that can increase the efficiency of vanadium recovery as ammonium metavanadate [NH₄VO₃] and ammonium polyvanadate [(NH₄)₂V₆O₁₆·H₂O] was investigated by examining the characteristics of vanadium-containing aqueous solutions during precipitation. The aluminum content of vanadium-containing water leaching solutions has a great effect on the loss of vanadium when the pH of the aqueous solution is adjusted to 9. Therefore, a process to minimize aluminum leaching is also required. In this study, ~99% or more of vanadium present in vanadium-containing aqueous solutions was precipitated and recovered as NH₄VO₃ by adding 3 equivalents of ammonium chloride relative to the vanadium content at pH 9 and room temperature. (NH₄)₂V₆O₁₆·H₂O was precipitated from the aluminum-vanadium coprecipitates generated during the pH-adjustment of the aqueous solutions to 9 by dissolving the coprecipitate in the solutions at pH 2.5 and controlling their sodium content to 2,000 mg/L or less. Approximately, 98% or more of the available (NH₄)₂V₆O₁₆·H₂O could be precipitated and recovered from a solution with a vanadium content of 2,200 mg/L and a sodium content of 1,875 mg/L at pH 2.5 by adding approximately 3 equivalents of ammonium chloride relative to the vanadium content at 95℃ or higher. The overall process could precipitate and recover, approximately 91% or more of the total vanadium in the water leaching solution as NH₄VO₃ and (NH₄)₂V₆O₁₆·H₂O.

• Korean Journal of School Psychology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.231-263
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to verify the effects of growth orientation, life satisfaction, perceived stress, positive psychological capital and interpersonal relationships in the group coaching program for the promotion of growth orientation for university students based on the model of the social-cognitive approach to motivation. The program consisted of eight topics: growth orientation, growth mindset and brain plasticity, self-directed goal setting, talent which is a product of ongoing effort, failure attitude and perspective change, positive emotion, thinking and behavior, value of growth orientation and self-coaching, respectively. The program comprised a total of eight sessions, 120 minutes each, and the final program was completed through a preliminary experiment with three university students. In order to verify the effectiveness of the program, 48 university students were divided into 16 in the experimental group, 16 in the comparative group, and 16 in the control group. The experimental group participated in the group coaching program to enhance the growth orientation based on the model of the social-cognitive approach to motivation developed in this study, the comparative group participated in a learning goal orientation improvement program based on an incremental implicit theory, and the control group did not carry out any program. Three groups were tested in pre, post, follow-up1(after 1 month) and follow-up2(after 3 months) in order to growth orientation, life satisfaction, perceived stress, positive psychological capital and interpersonal relationships. We performed analysis to confirm the homogeneity to the data of the three groups and to verify the interaction effects between times and groups. As a result, it was confirmed that the group coaching program to promote growth orientation, life satisfaction, perceived stress, positive psychological capital and interpersonal relationships had statistically significant effect and was more effective than the comparative program due to the larger effective size. Also, we confirmed that the coaching effect was sustained after the program was finished and more effectively maintained than the comparative program. Based on the results of this study, this study has academic implications because it verify the effectiveness of the group coaching for the promotion of the growth orientation by scient ic method.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.346-358
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• 2023

Due to the acceleration of climate change or global warming, it is important to predict rice productivity in the future and investigate physiological changes in rice plants. The research aimed to explore how rice adapts to climate change by examining the response of nitrogen absorption and nitrogen use efficiency in rice under elevated levels of carbon dioxide and temperature, utilizing the SPAR system for analysis. The temperature increased by +4.7 ℃ in comparison to the period from 2001 to 2010, while the carbon dioxide concentration was held steady at 800 ppm, aligning with South Korea's late 21st-century RCP8.5 scenario. Nitrogen was applied as fertilizer at rates of 0, 9, and 18 kg 10a^-1, respectively. Under conditions of climate change, there was an 81% increase in the number of panicles compared to the present situation. However, grain weight decreased by 38% as a result of reduction in the grain filling rate. BNUE, indicative of the nitrogen use efficiency in plant biomass, exhibited a high value under climate change conditions. However, both NUEg and ANUE, associated with grain production, experienced a notable and significant decrease. In comparison to the current conditions, nitrogen uptake in leaves and stems increased by 100% and 151%, respectively. However, there was a 25% decrease in nitrogen uptake in the panicle. Likewise, the nitrogen content and NDFF (Nitrogen Derived from Fertilizer) in the sink organs, namely leaves and roots, were elevated in comparison to current levels. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure resources by mitigating the decrease in ripening rates under climate change conditions. Moreover, there seems to be a requirement for follow-up research to enhance the flow of photosynthetic products under climate change conditions.

• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.104-114
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• 2023

As plastic usage increases globally, the amount of plastic waste entering the marine environment is steadily rising. Microplastics, in particular, can be ingested by marine organisms and accumulated in their digestive tracts, causing harmful effects on their growth and reproduction. Cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes are known to metabolize various environmental pollutants as detoxification enzymes, but their role in crustaceans is not well understood. In this study, sequences of nine CYP genes (CYP370A4, CYP370C5 from clan 2; CYP350A1, CYP350C5, CYP361A1 from clan 3; CYP4AN-like, CYP4AP2, CYP4AP3, CYP4C33-like1 from clan 4) were analyzed using conserved domains in the brackish water flea Diaphanosoma celebensis. Additionally, after exposure to three different sizes of polystyrene beads (0.05-, 0.5-, 6-㎛ PS beads; 0.1, 1, and 10 mg/L) for 48 hours, the expression of these nine CYP genes were investigated using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The results showed that all CYP genes possessed conserved motifs, indicating that D. celebensis CYP has evolutionarily conserved functions. Among these CYP genes, the expression of CYP370C5, CYP360A1, and CYP4C122 showed a significant increase after exposure to 0.05-㎛ PS beads, suggesting their involvement in PS metabolism. This research will contribute to understanding the molecular mode of actions of microplastics on marine invertebrates.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.808-819
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• 2023

This study was conducted to develop a selection marker for the identification of the Bacillus licheniformis K12 strain in microbial communities. The strain not only demonstrates good growth at moderate temperatures but also contains enzymes that catalyze the decomposition of various polymer materials, such as proteases, amylases, cellulases, lipases, and xylanases. To identify molecular markers appropriate for use in a microbial community, a search was conducted to identify variable gene regions that show considerable genetic mutations, such as recombinase, integration, and transposase sites, as well as phase-related genes. As a result, five areas were identified that have potential as selection markers. The candidate markers were two recombinase sites (BLK1 and BLK2), two integration sites (BLK3 and BLK4), and one phase-related site (BLK5). A PCR analysis performed with different Bacillus species (e.g., B. licheniformis, Bacillus velezensis, Bacillus subtilis, and Bacillus cereus) confirmed that PCR products appeared at specific locations in B. licheniformis: BLK1 in recombinase, BLK2 in recombinase family protein, and BLK3 and BLK4 as site-specific integrations. In addition, BLK1 and BLK3 were identified as good candidate markers via a PCR analysis performed on subspecies of standard B. licheniformis strains. Therefore, the findings suggest that BLK1 can be used as a selection marker for B. licheniformis species and subspecies in the microbiome.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.1015-1024
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• 2023

Antibiotics have greatly contributed to the treatment and prevention of bacterial diseases in humans, animals, and fish. However, antibiotic misuse has led to the emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria. In addition to antibiotic discovery research, efforts are being made to combat such multidrug-resistant bacteria using antimicrobial agents, antioxidants, host immune enhancement, probiotics, and bacteriophages, as well as various symptomatic therapies. To discover novel bioactive compounds, it is crucial to adopt approaches that incorporate fresh ideas, new targets, innovative techniques, and untapped resources. Halophytes are plants that grow in high-salt soils and are known to adapt to salt-induced stress through unique metabolic processes that produce secondary metabolites. This study aimed to investigate the effects of extracts of halophytes native to Korea on oxidative stress and to determine whether they exert inhibitory activity against biofilms, which are major pathogenic factors of infectious bacteria. The Acinetobacter baumannii strain ATCC 17978, a representative drug-resistant bacterium, was used to measure anti-biofilm activity. The results showed that Aster spathulifolius, Carex kobomugi, Rosa rugosa, and Asparagus cochinchiensis exerted strong antioxidant and anti-biofilm effects without affecting bacterial growth itself. The halophytes used in this study are promising candidates for the development of pharmaceutical agents with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties.